As I said in the last article there have seldom, if ever, been narratives as delightful to read as the novels of Jane Austen. Though Jane Austen is always telling a story, and telling a story that involves marriage in some way, this is a vehicle for her to show the reader how to pursue true happiness, how to achieve a right ordering of
intellect and will, how, in our fallen state, to obtain the justice in our being that was lost to us in the Fall.

In Pride and Prejudice Miss Austen shows us that to achieve happiness one should have an objective, unprejudiced mind, unclouded by hurt pride, or an excessive estimation of one’s own worth. This is a lovely story, in some ways the most conventionally satisfying. Elizabeth Bennet is an engaging heroine, though her prejudice against Mr. D’Arcy and for Mr. Wickham blinds her to the improper behavior of the latter, and makes her misjudge the good intentions and actions of the former. When Elizabeth reads the account D’Arcy gives of his actions, the text says, “With a strong prejudice against everything he might say, she began his account....” (P. 204) But she comes to see that she has been unjust. She admits to herself,

“That among his own connections he was esteemed and valued –that even Wickham had allowed him merit as a brother, and that she had often heard him speak so affectionately of his sister as to prove him capable of some amiable feeling. That had his actions been what Wickham represented them, so gross a violation of everything right could hardly have been concealed from the world; and that friendship between a person capable of it, and such an amiable man as Mr. Bingley, was incomprehensible.

“She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. – Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.

“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. – “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! – I, who have valued my abilities! Who have often disdained the generous candor of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless or blamable distrust. How humiliating is this discovery! –Yet, how just a humiliation! – Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love has been my folly. –Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself.” (Pp. 207-208)

This is very helpful. One likes Elizabeth, and identifies with her. In many ways she is perspicuous, and intelligent. But she has been blinded by vanity, and her blindness, and then her awareness of her blindness, makes it possible for us to look at our own lives and wonder if we are suffering from a similar difficulty. This is not to say that Mr. D’Arcy is perfect, which is another lovely side of Jane Austen. She presents a balanced view. Elizabeth, as you can see, has made a mistake in judgment. But she is willing to admit it. Later on in the story, Mr. D’Arcy makes a similar confession. He says to Elizabeth,

“What did you say of me that I did not deserve? For, though your accusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises, my behavior to you at the time, had merited the severest reproof. It was unpardonable. I cannot think of it without abhorrence. “(P. 367)

“The recollection of what I said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is not and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: ‘had you behaved in a more gentle-manlike manner.” Those were your words. ...I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit....such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you? You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled....” (P. 369)

When Elizabeth Bennet says, “I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away...” She brings up the important concern of Miss Austen that
reason should be in control. A charming example of the importance of living by right reason is found in Sense and Sensibility. In this story Jane Austen shows, without undue preaching, the difference between a life lived in accord with right reason, and one that is not. Elinor and Maryanne are two young women, both disappointed in love, both seemingly duped by their would-be suitors.

Elinor, though her heart is broken and, due to the circumstances by which she finds out about the deception, she is deprived of the comfort of sharing her sorrow with any other human being, lives a life ordered to others. She attends to the comfort of those she lives with, she occupies herself with useful and pleasant tasks, she makes a choice to be happy or at least to live a normal life that makes those around her happy. She succeeds in her goal. Those around her cherish her help; they do not know her sorrow, but they recognize her goodness. Her emotions, though real, are controlled by her reason. (I do not mean to suggest that she does not have feelings, or that she doesn’t have any struggle to control them. That wouldn’t be realistic, and this is, in my opinion, a realistic story. But she does make the choice to subordinate her disappointment to her other roles in life.)

Maryanne, on the other hand, lives for emotion. She revels in her feelings, both happy and sad. When she is up, she is up, and when she is down everyone is going to suffer with her. She doesn’t consider the feelings of others, she just concentrates on her own sad situation and immerses herself in it. The result is that she makes everyone around her miserable, she gets very sick, because she is not eating or sleeping well, and eventually she nearly dies.

She is rescued from this state by the loving care of her sister and mother, and she comes to see the mistake she has made. So do we as we read the story. Self-control is a virtue that rewards the one who has it and makes the life of everyone around her happier.

While it is right that one must live according to good principles and not act because of what others think is right, namely out of human respect, rather than one’s own judgment, it is also true that there are different kinds of persuasion. In the book Persuasion Captain Wentworth feels that Anne was persuaded when she should not have been. She had broken their engagement due to the influence of a friend. Many years later they meet again and eventually become engaged again. Captain Wentworth says, in reflection upon the situation, “I could think of you only as one who had yielded, who had given me up, who had been influenced by anyone rather than by me. “ (P. 245) He also said, “...I was proud, too proud to ask again...I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice.” ( P. 247) Anne’s response is, “I have been thinking over the past, and trying impartially to judge of right and wrong, I mean with regard to myself; and I must believe that I was right, much as I suffered from it, that I was perfectly right in being guided by the friend whom you will love better than you do now. To me, she was in the place of a parent. Do not mistake me, however. I am not saying that she did not err in her advice. .... I mean that I was right in submitting to her, and that if I had done otherwise, I should have suffered more in continuing the engagement than I did even in giving it up, because I should have suffered in my conscience.“ (P. 246) This is important to Jane Austen. One must live in such a way as to do one’s duty. This means living by reason, and subordinating one’s emotional desires to what one knows one should do. This does not suppress the emotions, but actually makes them more truly what they are intended to be. If they are out of control, then so are we, and we are unhappy.

The characters in Mansfield Park make one aware of this as well. What Edmund, the hero of this story, wishes generously for Miss Crawford, the woman by whom he
has been duped, is that she learn to “... think more justly, and not owe the most valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire – the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty, to the lessons of affliction.”

Edmund’s father, Sir Thomas Bertram, suffers greatly during the course of the story due to the sinful behavior of his eldest daughter, who leaves her husband to live
with another man. (As you can see, Jane Austen addresses large issues.) Miss Austen says,

“Sir Thomas, poor Sir Thomas, a parent, and conscious of errors in his own conduct as a parent, was the longest to suffer. He felt that he ought not to have allowed the marriage, that his daughter’s sentiments had been sufficiently known to him to render him culpable in authorizing it, that in so doing he had sacrificed the right to the expedient, and been governed by motives of selfishness and worldly wisdom.” ( P. 461) “He feared that principle, active principle, had been wanting, that they (his children) had never been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers, by that sense of duty which can alone suffice. They had been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to bring it into daily practice.” (P.463)

In Emma one sees again the problems caused by a wrong analysis of ability, and one also sees the importance of docility. (Further, one watches Emma’s character develop from a young girl, somewhat arrogant and willful, to a young woman, who recognizes that she has made foolish mistakes, and has acted unkindly to those who deserve better.) The critical point in this story is when Emma makes fun of Miss Bates, an elderly woman, who is rather hard to take. What Emma says is funny, but wrong, and Mr. Knightly, the hero of the piece, takes Emma to task. Her response is the right response. She is very sorry that she was so unkind. She makes amends by her behavior as well as by her word. In short, she acts as one ought to when one has been unkind to others and is corrected.

I mentioned earlier that Miss Austen uses humor, irony and even ridiculous characters without lessening her teaching. In Mansfield Park , for example, after Mary
Crawford’s character has been revealed to Edmund, who is heartbroken by the news, and finds it nearly impossible to speak of, even to his confident Fanny. “He yielded, but it was with agonies, which did not admit of speech. Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford’s name passed his lips again, or she (Fanny) could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.”

“It was long. They reached Mansfield on Thursday, and it was not till Sunday evening that Edmund began to talk to her on the subject.” (P. 453) Such gentle irony makes her serious characters more real, as they are just like us. Thursday to Sunday, though not at all a long time in reality, can seem very long to those in a situation like Edmund and Fanny’s.

In nearly every one of Miss Austen’s novels there is a ridiculous character who provides comic relief, and also highlights by contrast the serious message being proposed. In Pride and Prejudice, for example, there is Mr. Collins, an absurd bundle of supercilious humility, and an unchristian lack of charity. His character provides a real contrast to true humility, seen in both Elizabeth and Mr. D’Arcy, as they realize their faults and grow in virtue. In Sense and Sensibility there is a Mrs. Jennings, who teases, pries, and makes incautious statements. However, her outward manners conceal a very kind heart, and one sees in her a right ordering that is incomplete. In her way she adds to the picture of the right subordination of heart to mind. She has it, but not fully. Elinore has it in its completeness, Marianne doesn’t have it, but is able, through understanding her mistakes, to come to it. Mrs. Jennings shows us that even though one might not have a perfect subordination of appetites to reason, one may still be, in the most important respects, rightly ordered. Mansfield Park has Mrs. Norris, Persuasion has Mr. Elliot, and Emma has Miss Bates. All of these characters contribute to the same end as the serious characters.

It seems to me that one of the greatest strengths in Jane Austen is that she is talking about right behavior in the life most of us lead. While we don’t live in large houses or have many servants, our salvation probably depends on the same kinds of right actions. How we treat those elderly, somewhat difficult ladies in our lives, and whether we think about the people around us, and their needs, instead of thinking about our own disappointments, are the kinds of actions that are going to determine, for most of us, what our eternal destiny will be.

Jane Austen performs a very valuable service in showing us what a virtuous life is like, here and now, in the daily duties of life.